Middle West Region

 

Introduction

The Middle West Region is the flattest but houses a great national monument, plentiful lakes for fishing and recreation, professional sports teams, and the Bread Basket of the United States. Twelve states make up the Middle West Region. Sometimes those states are divided into two smaller regions – the Plains states (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota) and the Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin). All six Great Lakes states border a Great Lake.  

Task 

Using a publishing program, students will be working in groups of 3-4 to create a newspaper, highlighting events of the Middle West.

Students will use resources such as Internet and media materials (newspapers, textbooks, etc.) to gather information, choose important facts and write articles dealing with past and current events.

Process

1.    Within the group, members need to choose a topic to focus on. They will be responsible for researching and writing about these events for the newspaper.

2.    Students will self-edit articles for errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

3.    Students will then rewrite the article.

4.    Teacher will edit rewritten articles.

5.    Students will be given a template for the newspaper. As a group they will decide where articles need to be placed and pictures that would be appropriate.

6.    Students will then type the articles into the publishing program and make formatting changes as needed.

7.    Students will check newspaper for errors before printing.

8.    Newspapers will be placed in school library for checkout.    

Resources  

States Kids' Pages

www.state.me.us/sos/kids/links/statelinks.htm

Stately Knowledge

www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/stateknow/

Postcards from America

www.postcardsfrom.com/

Factmonster

www.factmonster.com/states.html

States and Capitals

http://www.50states.com/

www.netstate.com

http://www.geobop.com

eduscapes.com/42explore/50states.htm 

(Scroll down and look at the links on this page)

Books and Magazines

Northeast Region, Mystery State Series, The Education Center, TEC3716

The States and Their Symbols, Hilltop Books, Capstone Press

Evaluation

o      Students will be graded on the accuracy of the information on the articles for each event.  

o      Students will be graded using 6 Traits Writing Rubric.  

Conclusion

The Middle West Region is considered the most conservative region in the United States. Why might the people in this region be considered more conservative than in the previous regions you’ve studied?

 

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